Tuesday, September 27, 2011

After being pregnant for 41 weeks, I am SO happy to say that our sweet baby boy is here!!!

Paxton Ryder Stephens

(meaning: Peaceful Warrior)

Thursday, Sept 22, 2011 @ 8:11am

9lbs 8oz 21.5in

His birth did not go anything like I had expected it to, yet was everything we knew it would be, if that makes sense.

I was on the list to get called to be induced for Weds the 21st. The way it works here is they "schedule" 4 women to get induced per day and then call them in the order they are scheduled whenever they have an available bed. I was #3 out of 4 on the list. A friend of mine waited 3 days for them to call her and even when she did go in, she ended up calling them. So, we didn't "announce" to anyone except a few close friends that we were even on that list, since we didn't know how long we would have to wait. All while praying that I would go into labor on my own (I had a really strong feeling that I would. Some people thought I was crazy or just had wishful thinking).

By Weds night they hadn't called us yet, so we took the boys over to my parents' house to spend the night, in case we got called really early to go in. We came home & Dathan went to bed & I sat up almost all night with pregnancy insomnia I'm sure (and a little bit of restlessness). Around 3:00 I was finally able to go to sleep. At about 5:00 I woke up to a contraction. Now, I had been having contractions on & off for about a month, so I didn't think anything of it. I got up, went downstairs, & walked around for a little bit. The contractions kept coming every 5-7 minutes, and were pretty intense. After an hour I finally decided to wake up Dathan.

Dathan gets up, gets ready, makes coffee, etc. We are not rushing because my water hadn't broke yet & my contractions weren't unbearable. On our way out I said "Oh, lets take one more belly shot so we can remember how big I was when I finally went into labor." Please excuse the fact that I look like a wreck, you have to remember I was going on about 2 hours of sleep, have no makeup on, and was contracting ;)

At about 6:15 or so we are driving to the hospital. It's only about 5 minutes away, but in those 5 minutes my contractions seemed to have gotten more intense. Regardless, I had Dathan park the car in the parking lot & we walked into the Women & Infants Pavilion, or WIP (as opposed to him dropping me off at the door & getting a wheelchair to wheel me in). I said "walking helps labor move along faster!" We left our bags & camera in the car saying Dathan could go get it after we got into our labor & delivery room. We get inside & there is only one lady working the registration desk (I was pre-registered) and there was a lady in front of us getting registered. We stood there waiting for what felt like forever, but Dathan said was only about 10-15 mins. By now I'm having a hard time breathing through my contractions. I even said something along the lines of "that girl getting registered looks pretty calm, can the registration lady not tell I'm in labor??!?!" HA! Finally she calls us in & gets all our paperwork, asking me questions that Dathan had to answer because I couldn't speak through the contractions. Finally she takes us into triage.

The nurse shows us our "room" and explains that they have to tend to the lady who was in front of us first, so it will be about 30 mins before a nurse will get in to see me. Remember, my water hadn't broken yet so nobody had any cause to worry. We sit in triage playing "words with friends" and talking in between my (very painful) contractions that are now coming every 2-3 minutes.

After about 30-35 minutes a nurse finally comes in with a student nurse. They get me hooked up on all the monitors & she gets ready to check me. She explains to the student nurse that because I was dilated to a 3 at my appointment on Mon, and because I was having my 3rd kid, and because I was quite uncomfortable that I was probably already dilated to a 4 or a 5. I was hoping for a 6. She checks me and gets this strange look on her face and says "you are dilated to an 8!" An 8?!?! What?!?! The first words out of my mouth are "is it too late for an epidural?!" She tells me it depends on what my dr says.

I send out a text to my mom. Then I send out a text to some friends. Then I update my FB status (yes, I am that person) with "In triage and dilated to an 8! Ready or not, here baby comes!" That was posted at 7:40am. After that point is kind of a whirlwind for me. We waited a little bit longer (I think for them to get the room ready) then they wheel me over to the labor & delivery room. I am in pretty extreme pain at this point. My Dr just happened to be doing his rounds at that time (praise God!) and he comes in all suited up. I said "it's too late for an epidural, isn't it?" He tells me yes & I try not to freak out (I'm pretty sure I asked for an epidural about 3 more times, including while I was pushing LOL). He checks me. I'm at a 9. He breaks my water. I start pushing.

Ok let me just say that after having 2 children with an epidural & having something to compare it to now, all of you women who willingly choose to not have an epidural are crazy! In the best kind of way of course :) Haha! I don't remember exactly, but it was about 4 or 5 pushes and Pax was out! I couldn't believe it. After Dathan cut the cord, he & I kind of sat there in shock as the nurses cleaned Pax up. It all happened SO fast. He was born at 8:11am. 31 minutes after I posted my FB status. How's that for a fast delivery???

Our camera (and everything else!) was still in the car, so we have no "nice" pictures from right after he was born. The picture at the top was taken with Dathan's phone.

So the pictures on my nice camera went from the one above of me still pregnant to this:

And WHAM! Mommy of 3 sons! Hard to believe! What an incredible blessing! I am so thankful for a healthy baby & a quick delivery. He kept us waiting a long time to meet him, but then once he was ready to come he didn't mess around :)

I just love our family of FIVE!

This picture kind of sums up how the boys are reacting to Pax- Sean is SO excited & into him, and Nolan just couldn't care less (we finally got him to hold Pax for the first time yesterday... it only took him 4 days to want to! ha!)

Pax was a "big" baby, but not as big as Nolan was, and he doesn't seem that big. He is so sweet and laid back, nursing great & sleeping great. I am thrilled. And so in love.

God gave us a promise when I first got pregnant that this baby would bring peace & restoration to our family & to the lives of others. About 4 years ago God gave Dathan a promise that restoration would come to him, but not in the way he had planned. That it would be long awaited for, but then would come suddenly. God also told us that Paxton would come when He told him to & not on anyone else's time frame.